Movies and shows, old and new, have helped us to live vicariously through them. They have allowed us to travel far and wide at a time borders are shut and people are restricted to homes. In our new column What's In A Setting, we explore the inseparable association of a story with its setting, how the location complements the narrative, and how these cultural windows to the world have helped broaden our imagination.
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Every couple of months, after a long day of slacking off at work, and then being hard on myself for slacking off, I cozy myself in bed for a movie night. After scouring through the extensive catalogues of all my subscription services, breezing past the “must watch” film festival favourites, the indie darlings, and the superhero capers, I always circle back to one movie: Crazy Rich Asians. In my world, it’s a classic.
Why this movie remains an inexhaustible, durable source of comfort — like a bowl of hot buttered popcorn or the warm hug of a downy blanket on a cold day — is not because Nick Young (Henry Golding) is an absolute snack, or because Rachel (Constance Wu) and Nick’s romance is a sweet escape from my down-in-the-dumps love life. It’s because Crazy Rich Asians sweeps me away to a world of riches beyond my wildest imagination, to a side of Singapore that I will probably never inhabit. While sequestered indoors amid a raging pandemic, this movie, an exhibition of indulgence and opulence, has been my only vacation.
When I was 16, my family and I signed up for a guided tour of Singapore. It was my very first overseas vacation. I relished every point of the trip: Checking in my luggage and getting my newly-minted passport stamped at immigration. Even an unfortunate, never-ending layover did not get the best of me. We finally arrived, ready to embark on the adventure we had patiently waited for. We hopped from one popular site to another, each abuzz with tourists just like us; The Merlion Park, where the city’s iconic fountain rests; the Universal Studios, where I devoured a burger from a Shrek-themed restaurant; the Singapore Flyer; the Gardens by the Bay nature park. It was an enjoyable week-long tour, but it certainly wasn’t the “Crazy Rich Asian” experience.
I have now re-consumed this movie to a point that the experience of watching it has become amazingly visceral. I have watched the Tan Hua flowers bloom at Nick’s ancestral mansion up close; gawked at the gilded monstrosity that is Peik Lin’s house (Inspired by the House of Mirrors in Versailles and Donald Trump’s bathroom, as Rachel is told); I have manifested the taste of what Nick claims, in one of the humbler sequences, the island’s best satay; and have been stumped by Colin and Araminta’s $40 million wedding, replete with a flower-lined water aisle.
The setting of Crazy Rich Asians is inextricably tethered to its characters. Their material possessions — generational wealth, plump diamonds, rolling estates, gleaming luxury cars, and multi-million-dollar businesses — make them who they are. It's right there in the title!
It's odd to find comfort viewing this high life in TV and movies, but then what else is there to look forward to? In the case of Crazy Rich Asians, it's fictional, and otherwise entirely unattainable. I have had to grudgingly accept that I will never make such fat cash at my 9 to 5. After watching this movie, with the addition of copious amounts of reality TV about the super wealthy, I have wondered why we plebeians view them with great fascination. The answer is simple, I suppose.
For me, this film is a portal to an aspirational lifestyle, it makes you want to want it. And it definitely makes me temporarily forget all the woes in my life. The filthy rich and the elite have forged spaces for themselves so far removed from the reality of ordinary individuals like me, that I want a peek into their internal lives. I want to reimagine myself in their place, with a bank account bursting at its seams, so I don't have to think twice before dropping a million on vintage ruby earrings or a rare Cambodian gong. During the pandemic lockdown, I have craved for change, a rush and excitement; the world of Crazy Rich Asians has quelled these urges. And this brief respite was so cheap. Just Rs 999 for an Amazon Prime Video subscription.
I do realise that our capitalist and increasingly consumerist society has brainwashed me and many others into desiring a life like this. But all that glitters is not gold, and let's not forget that the movie does satirise the outrageous habits of the affluent. While their money gives them power, confidence, and prestige, the movie's Crazy Rich Asians — and it won't be a stretch to say a lot of the other ultra-wealthy — are awfully status- and pedigree- obsessed. "These people are so posh and snobby, they're snoshy," Peik Lin gives Rachel an overview of what's in store for her. If you don’t see this movie just as a rom-com, the message is so out there, that money is a perverse, dividing force.
Despite these realisations, I will still be going back to the world of Crazy Rich Asians, to vicariously live and relive my long-harboured fantasy of being an heiress.
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Read more from the What's in a Setting series here.
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